The Influence of Mother Tongue In Student Drama Performances

Background of the Study

In last year's drama performance, not a few students showed their speaking skills with their
mother tongue accent (local language). Their mother tongue is different, namely Sundanese and
Javanese. Both of these mother tongues make the appearance of English-language drama to be
slightly different from the usual drama performed by professional players. They performed the
drama because one of the requirements to pass the drama course.

Drama became one of the 5th semester courses in the English language education department of
the Swadaya Gunung Jati University. So to pass the course the students must display the drama
whose script they had conceived. The location of the campus is in the middle of region 3
(Cirebon Regency, Cirebon City, Kuningan Regency, Majalengka Regency, and Indramayu
Regency) so that their mother tongue is divided into two. Sundanese language for students from
Kuningan and Majalengka districts. And Javanese language for students from Cirebon city area,
Cirebon district, and Indramayu.

If speaking English with a mother tongue accent is very common. Because people from all over
the world will have different accents in English pronunciation. But in the case of drama,
everyone must animate the character he plays. According to Webster's English cannon dictionary
"Drama is a composition in verse or prose intended to portray life or character or tell a story
usually involves conflicts and emotions through action and dialogue and typically designed for
theatrical performance”. This is clearly a drama player must be able to mimic the accent of
speaking the character he plays.

Statement of the problem

This research will focus on the problem of how mother tongue influences student drama
performances in 2019
The Objective of Study

The purpose of this research is to know about how mother tongue influences student drama
performances in 2019

Research Question

Through this research the writer will get type of question which related
with the problem, there is:

1. How mother tongue influences student drama performances

Significance of The Research